April 10th – 2013 Regular Legislative Session Day 87

We spent the morning getting briefed on the proposed striking amendment to the Senate Operating Budget (ESSB 5034), which amounts to the House Democrat Majoritys proposed budget. We were also briefed on the latest draft of the Capital Budget, most of which remains unclear given the recent Federal District Court dealing with fish passage.

Im now in the House Appropriations Committee meeting hearing the Democrats proposed Operating Budget, embodied in a striking amendment. The Democrats proposed budget totals $34,845.7 Billion for Fiscal Year 13-15, which is approximately $3,554.7 Billion more than the Fiscal Year 2011-13 budget or an 11% increase to the state General Fund. The Democrats proposed budget was released to the public at 12:30 PM this afternoon and three hours later were receiving testimony on it.

Weve been told the Democrats plan on taking Executive Action to move the bill out of committee tomorrow (Thursday) with the plan being to pass the Operating Budget off the House Floor sometime on Friday. That means from the time the proposed budget was released to the public and subsequently passed on the House Floor, the total amount of time the public was provided to review and comment was less than 60 hours.